Chapter 12 #2
“How pleasant,” Beth commented. “Would you like to change before you leave?”
“No, thank you, Beth,” Alice said. “I think I will be fine like this.”
“Very well, miss. Allow me to take your parcel for you and place it in Lord Tonbridge’s carriage.”
The women locked eyes, a look of understanding passing between them. Alice could have hugged her.
“Thank you, Beth. That would be very helpful,” Alice replied, with a grateful smile.
Five minutes later, Alice joined Anthony in the carriage, the package on the seat by the side of her.
“It was very kind of you to do this for me,” Alice said.
“It is the very least I can do,” replied Anthony, lightly. “I will drop you off at my stables, go to do my errands, and then pick you up in a couple of hours. You should have plenty of time to get covered in horse manure and straw.”
“Is there somewhere I can get changed?”
“My housekeeper will show you up to one of the bedchambers. You can use that to change and wash in afterwards.”
“Thank you. And you are quite sure she will not say anything?” Alice felt she had to check, she was taking a big risk giving in to her impulses here.
“You can trust everyone in my household,” Anthony said gently.
Alice nodded. If he said there was no cause for concern, she believed him.
The carriage stopped in the mews behind Anthony’s house and he asked the driver to wait. He helped Alice out of the carriage and they went through the back garden of his house again.
Alice suspected that the servants had been warned to expect her as no one seemed surprised by her entrance. Anthony handed her over to the same maid who had looked after her before, and she was taken to a large bedroom at the front of the house where Alice got changed.
She put on the outfit Anthony had given her and stood in front of the full length mirror next to the dressing table and examined herself.
The clothes were a good fit though they felt peculiar as she was unaccustomed to wearing breeches in particular.
The boots were a little large. Anthony obviously had not guessed quite how small her feet were, and it was not as if he could ask Aunt Jane her advice.
With her hair tucked underneath the hat, she hoped she would pass as a boy as long as no one looked too closely. She would need to make sure she kept all her layers on to hide her body as much as possible.
At last satisfied that she could not make herself appear any more masculine, Alice opened the door to the bedchamber and stepped into the hallway where the maid was patiently waiting for her.
Alice guessed she had been warned what to expect because she did not so much as raise an eyebrow at Alice’s strange appearance.
“Are you ready to go to the stables now, miss?” the maid asked politely.
“Yes, please,” Alice replied, feeling very conspicuous standing in the middle of this beautiful townhouse dressed as a stable boy!
She followed the maid back downstairs and through the kitchen and then the garden into the mews.
Anthony’s carriage had left, presumably with him in it.
She was grateful that she had escaped him seeing her like this even if he had provided the disguise.
“If there is anything else you need, just ask Robert. He’s head stable boy and will be close by,” explained the maid.
“Thank you,” said Alice, feeling unbelievably awkward and debating the sense of what she was doing. If anything would make what happened last night worse, it was the Ton finding out about this.
The maid left and Alice walked over to Rosalind’s stall. The horse came to be greeted immediately and Alice stroked her nose. “What do you think, girl?” Alice asked. “Am I behaving even more ridiculously than usual? This certainly is not going to get me any closer to finding a husband . . .”
With a sigh, Alice turned to go back into the house.
It would be embarrassing, but she ought to get changed and wait in the drawing room until Anthony came back.
He would be disappointed though. He had put effort into trying to organise something that he thought might help her.
And being with animals did always make her feel calmer.
Rosalind gave a little whinny. Alice turned back to pet her and peeked inside the stall.
It was ready for a clean . . . And if Anthony had told the stable workers that she would be doing it, they would not clean it out today.
The thought of Rosalind sleeping on soggy, dirty hay made the decision for Alice.
She would do Rosalind’s stall as quickly as she could, it really was not in a bad state at the moment, and then go back inside and get changed and read until Anthony returned and was ready to take her home.
She would thank him for his generosity, but explain that she would not be using his, rather ingenious, disguise and cleaning the stables again.
Which is what she should have told him when he had first suggested it.
It would be so much easier if she were just like all the other ladies who actually seemed to be enjoying their first season.
Anyway, to work, as quickly as possible and then she would get changed and focus her energies on being the perfect potential wife so she would be inundated with marriage offers in no time.
She scoffed as she opened the stall and picked up the broom.
She could at least try to be the sort of woman someone would want to marry.
Alice was vaguely aware of the sound of a carriage pulling up in the mews but jumped as she heard footsteps behind her and Anthony chuckling, “My, you have been busy!”
“It has not been two hours already has it?” Alice said in dismay.
“More like two and a half,” Anthony laughed as he leant on the stall door looking completely relaxed.
Alice sighed at her lack of self control.
She had started off with Rosalind’s stall, and it had looked so nice when she had finished that she had felt terrible for the horse in the next stall so had decided to do that one too.
And then the mare in the stall after that was so sweet and had taken an apple so gently from Alice’s hand that she had wanted to make a fuss of her two, and had ended up grooming her as a way to get to know her before cleaning out her stall as well. She had completely lost track of time.
She glared at Anthony as he smirked at her. “It certainly appears you had a good time,” he commented.
Alice blew a wisp of hair out of her face and glanced down at her clothes.
Thank goodness she had not been wearing any of the beautiful gowns her aunt had bought her.
Suddenly she felt like she was going to cry.
Why could she never behave properly? It could not be that difficult.
Plenty of people did it! She blinked rapidly and sniffed to try to keep the tears at bay.
She realised she had failed as she felt a large drop on her cheek.
“Oh dear,” Anthony said. He came inside the stall and sat down on a bale of hay. He patted next to him and Alice found herself sitting down.
“I had hoped that spending some time here would have cheered you up, not made you feel worse,” he said, gently.
“It did cheer me up,” Alice reassured him, accepting a handkerchief from him and drying her eyes.
“I am not convinced,” Anthony responded with a smile.
“It really did,” said Alice. She sighed. “I feel like I am putting on an act for so much of my life here, but I can be myself when I am with the horses. I know that sounds silly…”
“It does not sound silly at all,” Anthony reassured her. “I often feel the same way.”
Alice’s eyes widened, “You do?” she said. “I find that a little hard to imagine.”
Anthony shrugged. “It is true,” he said, lightly.
“But no one bats an eyelid if I come out here and spend some time with my horses. Though I suppose some eyebrows might be raised if I started cleaning out their stalls myself.” He looked pleased to see that his comment managed to raise the corners of Alice’s mouth slightly.
They swiftly fell again though as she said, “Just imagine if someone saw me here.” She put her head in her hands, despairing of herself.
“No one has seen you other than my staff, and you are in disguise. I doubt even I would recognise you if I had not known it was you.”